1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suspension assembly positioning method for positioning a suspension assembly relative to a vehicle body frame member when the suspension assembly is attached to the vehicle body frame member.
2. Related Art
A suspension of a vehicle is easily and preferably attached to a vehicle body frame member or the like, if a suspension assembly including with a steering mechanism, a link mechanism, a tire attaching portion, a brake mechanism and an engine or the like is previously integrated into one assembly.
When a suspension assembly is attached to a vehicle body frame member, a positioning needs to be carried out such that relative positions of the suspension assembly and the vehicle body frame member are pertinently matched. As such a positioning method, JP-B-07-010674 discloses a method of attaching a suspension assembly while detecting a position of a reference hole on a vehicle body formed as a reference index mark by a visual sensor. Specifically, a position of a mounting face of a rotary lift table is adjusted based on a signal provided from a pair of position detecting visual sensors detecting outer peripheral corners of the vehicle body. Successively, a positional shift is corrected by finely adjusting the position of the mounting face of the rotary lift table based on a signal provided from a position detecting visual sensor provided at a center of the rotary lift table in order to detect a reference hole of a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the vehicle body frame member or the suspension assembly is a composite member integrated with a plurality of working portions, a plurality of mechanisms and the like and dimensional errors of the respective portions are accumulated.
Therefore, there is a concern that a dimension of an attaching portion is not formed sufficiently highly accurately. That is, as shown by FIG. 10, there can be a case in which a center position 3 of left and right damper attaching holes 2 of a vehicle body frame member 1 may not be coincident with a position of a reference hole 4 provided at a center position of the vehicle body frame member 1. Further, there can be a case in which a center position 6 of the suspension assembly 5 may not be coincident with the center position 3 of the damper attaching holes 2.
Therefore, if an adjustment of matching the center position 6 to the reference hole 4 is carried out, a damper head portion 7 and the damper attaching hole 2 are not coincident with each other. When the suspension assembly 5 is assembled to the vehicle body frame member 1 as it is, the damper 7 and a hub 8 are inclined and deviations θ1, θ2 are brought about in left and right camber angles. Although the deviations θ1, θ2 and the camber angles are aligned at a later step, the alignment operation requires a considerable time period. In addition, the alignment operation needs a skill of an operator and complicated alignment machines.
The invention has been carried out in consideration of such a problem.